The frauds practised by the professed ministers of religion, during the almost universal prevalence of popery, most affectingly display the depravity of the human heart, and the impious tendency of false religion. Never, perhaps, was a stratagem acted more infamous than one in Berne, in the year 1509, the following account of which drawn from Ruchet’s “Histoire de la Réformation en Suisse,” and Höttinger’s “Hist. Eccles. Helvet.,” is given in Mosheim’s “Eccles. Hist.” A similar account may be found in bishop Burnet’s Travels through France, Italy, etc. The stratagem in question was the consequence of a rivalship between the Franciscans and Dominicans, and more especially of their controversy concerning the immaculate conception of the virgin Mary. The former maintained, that she was born without the blemish of original sin; the latter asserted the contrary. The doctrine of the Franciscans, in an age of darkness and superstition, could not but be popular; and hence, the Dominicans lost ground from day to day. To support the credit of their order, they resolved, at a chapter held at Vimpsen in the year 1504, to have recourse to fictitious visions and dreams, in which the people at that time had an easy faith; and they determined to make Berne the scene of their operations. A person named Jetzer, who was extremely simple, and much inclined to austerities, and who had taken their habit as a lay-brother, was chosen as the instrument of the delusions they were contriving. One of the four Dominicans, who had undertaken the management of this plot, conveyed himself secretly into Jetzer’s cell; and, about midnight, appeared to him in a horrid figure, surrounded with howling dogs, and seemed to blow fire from his nostrils, by the means of a box of combustibles which he held near his mouth. In this frightful form, he approached Jetzer’s bed, told him that he was the ghost of a Dominican, who had been killed at Paris, as a judgment from heaven for laying aside his monastic habit; that he was condemned to purgatory for this crime; adding, that, by his means, he might be rescued from his misery, which was beyond expression. This story, accompanied with horrible cries and howlings, frightened poor Jetzer out of the little wits he had, and engaged him to promise to do all in his power to deliver the Dominican from his torment. Upon this, the impostor told him, that nothing but the most extraordinary mortifications, such as the discipline of the whip, performed during eight days by the whole monastery, and Jetzer’s lying prostrate, in the form of one crucified, in the chapel, during mass, could contribute to his deliverance. He added, that the performance of these mortifications would draw down upon Jetzer the peculiar protection of the blessed virgin; and concluded by saying that he should appear to him again, accompanied with two other spirits.
Morning was no sooner come, than Jetzer gave an account of this apparition to the rest of the convent, who all unanimously advised him to undergo the discipline that was enjoined; and every one consented to endure his share of the task imposed. The deluded simpleton obeyed, and was admired as a saint by the multitude that crowded about the convent, while the four friars, that managed the imposture, magnified, in the most pompous manner, the miracle of this apparition, in their sermons, and in their discourse. The night after, the apparition was renewed, with the addition of two impostors, dressed like devils; and Jetzer’s faith was augmented by hearing from the spectre all the secrets of his life and thoughts, which the impostors had learned from his confessor. In this, and some subsequent scenes, (the detail of whose enormities we shall here omit,) the impostor talked much to Jetzer of the Dominican order, which he said was peculiarly dear to the blessed virgin; he added, that the virgin knew herself to be conceived in original sin; that the doctors who taught the contrary were in purgatory; that the blessed virgin abhorred the Franciscans for making her equal with her Son; and that the town of Berne would be destroyed for harbouring such plagues within her walls. In one of these apparitions, Jetzer imagined that the voice of the spectre resembled that of the prior of the convent, and he was not mistaken; but, not suspecting a fraud, he gave little attention to this. The prior appeared in various forms, sometimes in that of St. Barbara, at others, in that of St. Bernard; at length, he assumed that of the virgin Mary; and, for that purpose clothed himself in the habits that were employed to adorn the statue of the virgin in the great festivals; the little images, that on these days are placed on the altars, were made use of for angels, which, being tied to a cord that passed through a pulley over Jetzer’s head, rose up and down, and danced about the pretended virgin to increase the delusion. The virgin thus equipped, addressed a long discourse to Jetzer, in which, among other things, she told him that she was conceived in original sin, though she had remained but a short time under that blemish. She gave him, as a miraculous proof of her presence, a host, or consecrated wafer, which turned from white to red in a moment: and, after various visits, in which the greatest enormities were transacted, the virgin-prior told Jetzer, that she would give him the most affecting and undoubted marks of her Son’s love, by imprinting on him the five wounds that pierced Jesus on the cross, as she had done before to St. Lucia and St. Catharine. Accordingly, she took his hand by force, and struck a large nail through it, which threw the poor dupe into the greatest torment.
The next night, this masculine virgin brought, as he pretended, some of the linen in which Christ had been buried, to soften the wound, and gave Jetzer a soporific draught, which had in it the blood of an unbaptized child, some grains of incense, and of consecrated salt, some quicksilver, and the hairs of the eye-brows of a child, all of which, with some stupifying and poisonous ingredients, were mingled together by the prior with magic ceremonies, and a solemn dedication of himself to the devil in the hope of his succour. This draught threw the poor wretch into a sort of lethargy, during which the monks imprinted on his body the other four wounds of Christ, in such a manner that he felt no pain. When he awoke, he found, to his unspeakable joy, these impressions on his body, and came at last to fancy himself a representative of Christ in the various parts of his passion. He was, in this state, exposed to the admiring multitude on the principal altar of the convent, to the great mortification of the Franciscans. The Dominicans gave him some other draughts, that threw him into convulsions, which were followed by a voice conveyed through a pipe into the mouths of two images, one of Mary, and another of the child Jesus; the former of which had tears painted upon its cheeks in a lively manner. The little Jesus asked his mother, by means of this voice, (which was that of the prior,) why she wept? and she answered, that her tears were owing to the impious manner in which the Franciscans attributed to her the honour that was due to him, in saying that she was conceived and born without sin.
The apparitions, false prodigies, and abominable stratagems of these Dominicans were repeated every night; and the matter was at length so grossly over-acted, that, simple as Jetzer was, he at last discovered it, and had almost killed the prior, who appeared to him one night in the form of the virgin, with a crown on her head. The Dominicans, fearing, by this discovery, to lose the fruits of their imposture, thought the best method would be to own the whole matter to Jetzer, and to engage him, by the most seducing promises of opulence and glory, to carry on the cheat. Jetzer was persuaded, or at least he appeared to be so. The Dominicans, however, suspecting that he was not entirely gained over, resolved to poison him; but his constitution was so vigorous that, though they gave him poison five several times, he was not destroyed by it. One day, they sent him a loaf prepared with some spices, which, growing green in a day or two, he threw a piece of it to a wolf’s whelps, that were in the monastery, and it killed them immediately. At another time, they poisoned the host, or consecrated wafer, but he escaped once more. In short, there were no means of securing him, which the most detestable impiety and barbarity could invent, that they did not put in practice; till, finding at last an opportunity of getting out of the convent, he threw himself into the hands of the magistrates, to whom he made a full discovery of this infernal plot. The affair being brought to Rome, commissaries were sent from thence to examine the matter; and the whole cheat being fully proved, the four friars were solemnly degraded from their priesthood, and were burned alive, on the last day of May, 1509. Jetzer died some time after at Constance, having poisoned himself, as was believed by some. Had his life been taken away before he had found an opportunity of making the discovery already mentioned, this execrable and horrid plot, which, in many of its circumstances, was conducted with art, would probably have been handed down to posterity as a stupendous miracle.
When the Reformation was spread in Lithuania, prince Radzviil was so affected by it, that he went in person to pay the pope all possible honours. His holiness, on this occasion, presented him with a precious box of relics. The prince having returned home, some monks intreated permission to try the effect of these relics on a demoniac, who had hitherto resisted every kind of exorcism. They were brought into the church with solemn pomp, and deposited on the altar, accompanied by an innumerable crowd. After the usual conjurations, which were unsuccessful, they applied the relics. The demoniac instantly recovered. The people called out, “A miracle!” and the prince, lifting his hands and eyes to heaven, felt, it is said, his faith confirmed. In this transport of joy, he observed that a young gentleman, who was keeper of this treasure of relics, smiled, and by his motions ridiculed the miracle. The prince indignantly took the young keeper of the relics to task; who, on the promise of pardon, gave the following secret intelligence concerning them. In travelling from Rome he had lost the box of relics, and, not daring to mention it, he obtained a similar one, which he had filled with small bones of dogs and cats, and other trifles similar to what were lost. He hoped he might be forgiven for smiling, when he found such a collection of rubbish was idolized with such pomp, and had even the virtue of expelling demons! It was by the assistance of this box that the prince discovered the gross impositions of the monks and demoniacs, and Radzviil afterwards became a zealous Lutheran.[K]
To take another case, for which we are indebted to Scott’s “History of the Lives of Protestant Reformers in Scotland.” At the east end of the village of Musselburgh there was a chapel dedicated to the virgin Mary; its proper name being Loretta, though it was vulgarly called Alareit, or Lawreit. There was also a chapel of the same name in Perth, and many credulous people of both these places, as well as the people of Loretta, in Italy, believed that their chapel contained within it the identical small brick-built house in which Mary had dwelt at Nazareth, and that it had been conveyed miraculously from its original seat. At the time now referred to, it was announced in Edinburgh, and the neighbouring places, that a miracle would be performed on a certain day, and a great number of persons consequently assembled. A stage was erected on the outside of the chapel, and, at length, a young man, apparently blind, was led forward. Many of those who were present knew this person, and had, perhaps, often pitied his circumstances. After various prayers and ceremonies, his eyes, to the satisfaction of the people, appeared to be perfectly restored. Returning thanks to the priests and friars, he now left the stage, and received the congratulations of the people, some of whom gave him money.
The true character of the treatment of his case will appear from the following narrative. He had been a poor friendless boy, who had attended the sheep belonging to the ruins of Scienna, or Sciennes, about a quarter of a mile from Edinburgh. It was one of his amusements to turn up the whites of his eyes; and, so effectually did he do this, as to appear, at pleasure, perfectly blind. The nuns spoke of him to some priests and friars, and they laid the plan which was afterwards carried out. The child was secreted for some years from public view, and, when it was supposed he was so altered as not to be recognised, he was sent forth a blind mendicant, accompanied by a person who believed he was born so, and had previously been supported by the nuns. Bound by a solemn but rash vow to affect blindness, he travelled the country for a considerable time, till at length the trick of his restoration was played as has already been stated.
Among the numerous publications of M. Guizot, is an edition of the “Chronicles of Frodvard,” which, in addition to much historical matter, ascribes many miracles to the bishops of Rheims. One of them, bishop Remi, it is said, “was in the house of a wealthy female relative, conversing with her on religious topics, when her butler announced that there was no more wine in the cellars. The bishop, seeing her embarrassment, having previously entered some of the lower apartments himself, proposed to accompany her to the cellar. When they entered it, he inquired whether there was not a little wine remaining in a particular cask. The butler replied, that there was only enough to preserve it from decay. The bishop then desired him to shut the door, and not to stir from his position, and passing to the other end to the cask, which was pretty large, he made the sign of the cross and prayed. Soon the wine rose up out of the cask, and flooded over the cellar-floor!” Now, the fact of the bishop’s visit to the cellar first; of a butler, it might be, not very acute in vision, being desired, after locking the door, to exclude all witnesses, and to stand at a distance; and, of a relation of the bishop, who might easily be made a confederate, being engaged; is surely more than sufficient to set aside the whole tale. Moreover, the lady gave, as the result of the prodigy, which many a conjuror has easily surpassed, a portion of her estate in perpetuity to the bishop and his church! Prodigies of the Romish church in abundance have had precisely the same issue.
In an official and authorized Roman Catholic publication, printed in 1831, we are told that not less than twenty-six pictures of the virgin Mary opened and shut their eyes at Rome during the years 1796 and 1797, which was supposed to be an indication of her peculiar favour to the inhabitants of that city for the opposition which they presented to the French. Among the subscribers to this work are the four archbishops and eleven bishops of Ireland.
“An officer in the British army described to me,” says Mr. Hughes, “an extraordinary scene which he witnessed in Messina, in 1811, occasioned by a picture of the virgin, in a church much venerated by the populace. An inhabitant going in, according to custom, to offer up his adoration to the Madonna, suddenly ran out again, exclaiming, that ‘the virgin was weeping for calamity impending over the city.’ The people rushed in crowds to the church; when, lo! to their astonishment and dismay, the tears were, as reported, trickling over the cheeks of their beloved patroness; upon which, the whole multitude began to weep, and howl, and beat their breasts, expecting nothing less than an earthquake, or a French invasion. At length one, more acute than the rest, observed that some water was passing through the roof of the church, and dripping upon the canvas, pointed out the circumstance; but he nearly fell a victim to his want of judgment, for the people were determined to have a miracle; nor could they be persuaded to disperse till the archbishop, a venerable old man, mounted a ladder, and wiped the lady’s eyes with a napkin; after this, he drew the picture into a more perpendicular situation, telling his audience, that, as the cause was luckily removed, their patroness had promised to weep no more.”[L]